A year ago we polled you, the ReadWriteWeb community, on your favorite mobile apps. It's become an annual tradition to run this survey, so in this post we're collecting your top 5 lists for 2009. To get you inspired, the ReadWriteWeb team have listed their personal favorites below.
We first ran this poll in November 2007, before Apple's App Store opened on July 10, 2008 and when Android was but a twinkle in Google's eye. At that time, the 5 most mentioned mobile apps were the Gmail Java app, Google Maps, Opera Mini, Fring and Shozu. In November 2008 we began to see popular web services being mentioned as favorite mobile apps too: Facebook, Twitter, last.fm, FriendFeed. Also newer mobile-focused apps like Evernote and Brightkite. Read on for the 2009 edition of this reader survey...
Note: ReadWriteWeb's iPhone app is coming soon! To be notified as soon as it becomes available, email notify@readwriteweb.com.
Richard MacManus, ReadWriteWeb founder and editor (iPhone user):
Marshall Kirkpatrick, lead blogger and VP Content Development (iPhone and Android):
Sarah Perez, feature writer and RWW's resident Mobile Web expert ("Only 5?" she replied to my Basecamp message...Sarah uses iPhone):
Frederic Lardinois, writer (iPhone):
Jolie O'Dell, writer and RWW Community Manager (Blackberry):
Jolie notes (and you can sense the frustration!): "The BlackBerry user of the group has few options and fewer favorites. In fact, I'd almost post a response rant about how the development for BlackBerry devices AND the OS make enjoyable user experiences a near-impossibility."
Dana Oshiro, writer (iPhone):
Alex Williams, ReadWriteEnterprise editor (Blackberry, who notes that "the experience is just awful."):
Jared Smith, RWW webmaster (Blackberry and iPod touch):
Now, RWW readers, it's time for your feedback!
Let us know in the comments below what your favorite mobile apps are and what mobile device(s) you use. Please limit this to 5 apps, so we can identify trends more easily and report back on them in an upcoming post.
UPDATE: Appsfire have given us a special widget featuring quick links to all of the iPhone apps mentioned by our team.